The Nederland Downtown Development Authority (NDAA) Board of Directors held their meeting on Wednesday, February 9, 2022, at 6 p.m. where they approved budgets and funding requests. The Board, while also finalizing funding for the upcoming Frozen Dead Guy Days festival, discussed the financial impact that such events have on the town of Nederland and its businesses.

After roll call and the unanimous approval of the Consent Agenda, Fire Marshal Rik Henrikson led the Public Comment portion of the night with a public service reminder for Peak to Peak residents to register their cellphones in the “reverse 911” system. Landlines are automatically registered into this system, which will immediately call and notify residents of any fire related emergencies and evacuation information. However, residents must call and register their own personal cellphones in order to receive this service through them.

Henrikson continued the meeting by presenting a funding request for the Nederland Fire Department (NFPD) to the Board. The funding had been provided by the NDAA in previous years and was preemptively approved as part of the NDAA’s 2022 budgetary process back in September. Henrikson expressed his appreciation for the opportunity and detailed how the department, with its new leadership, is tackling public fire safety education and the enforcing of new fire codes.

The requested amount of $23,416 from the NDAA was approved by all members of the Board in a showing of continued support and appreciation for the NFPD. The NDAA will draft a resolution to request the funds from the Board of Trustees in a meeting next month.

Board Member Steve Karowe led a discussion on the town’s Wayfinding project, the town-wide signage program aimed to encourage tourism and strengthen community accessibility. The scope of the project proved to be sprawling as the Wayfinding project came up later in the meeting during budgetary discussions for both the Big Springs Parking project and the Tourism Management Grant.

The Board voted to schedule a future workshop session in which they can assess what signage can be produced and installed in the current “phase two” of the Wayfinding project, and what could be pushed to “phase three”. The goal of the workshop session is to pull the project into focus and perhaps see a smaller budget after reevaluating the necessity and positioning of certain signs.

However, the proposal was raised to utilize funds from the Wayfinding project’s budget in order to help the Big Springs project move forward. The Big Springs Parking project involves heavy but necessary construction to improve drainage and add sidewalks and more parking to the town of Nederland. The project currently requires an additional $90,000 to be approved by the town’s Board of Trustees to be able to move forward. The discussion over the supplemental budget has been pushed back by the BOT to their meeting next week, though the current bid from the contractor may expire before the funds are released, if they are even approved.

With the future of the Big Springs Parking project hanging in the balance, the Board chose from a “menu” of motions and approved moving forward with the contractor, Edge Contracting Inc., with an additional motion to utilize funds from the Wayfinding 2022 budget if the BOT chooses to decline the supplemental budget. Karowe added, as head of Wayfinding Committee, that the Big Springs Parking project is farther along in development than Wayfinding is currently. Though the $90,000 taken for Big Springs would have Wayfinding operating with a third of their original 2022 budget, Karowe believes the project can handle the cut and move forward unhindered.

The NDAA wasn’t done with the discussions on The Big Springs Parking project, as the motion for Public Works handling the asphalt paving for the job was still on the table. Board members were fairly split on the issue, with some believing that having the liability for the entire project lie on one outside contractor would be ideal. Though the counterpoint was made that having Public Works be responsible for paving is more advantageous to both the department and the town; the conceit being that Public Works would be a more comfortable contractor to confer with during one of the final stages of the operation.

The savings provided to the town by Public Works handling the paving may not be significant enough considering the comfortability of having the project overseen by a single entity. The Board decided to continue the discussion on their next scheduled meeting, with the proposal for opening the subject up for debate being added.

Town Administrator Miranda Fisher presented the NDAA with a funding request for $5000, a match amount required from the NDAA in order to apply for the maximum $20,000 Tourism Management Grant. Fisher and the Board discussed how to allocate the grant, with the proposal being $15,000 going to the Wayfinding project, and $5000 going to a preliminary economic impact study.

The Board voted against the economic impact study, believing that $5000 was not enough to provide significant data, and decided unanimously to allocate the entire amount of the grant to Wayfinding. The Board approved the funding request of $5000 required to move forward with the grant application.

Board Member Danielle Crouse discussed the need for an additional $4,110 to be added to the proposed Public Art budget of $10,000. The request is due to the rising costs of materials needed to complete three planned murals.

A desire to complete projects within the original proposed budget was raised, hoping that the evidence of completed murals would be helpful when applying for funds in the future. The Board decided instead to approve the request for the $4,110 budget increase.

The Public Art Committee also led a discussion on how to best verbalize to artists applying to public projects that local artists are preferred for all positions. The Board had to nail down what areas in the Peak to Peak region that they consider to be “local,” which proved to be a sensitive issue in regards to potentially denying certain areas. The preference to local artists needs to be disclosed to artists in the application process, and the Board decided to include a list of town names and regions to the application.

The NDAA also authorized the funding for the approved Beautification and Traffic and Safety Support budgets. But the main concern for the night was moving forward with Frozen Dead Guy Days (FDGD) and analyzing how such events affect local businesses and town sales tax.

Fisher proceeded to share with the Board a spreadsheet of requested sales tax information received since 1998. The data showcased how special events and festivals, as well as seasons, impact the town financially.

Nederland businesses see the highest sales tax increase in the summer months, while the winter festival FDGD accounts for a $10,000 to $20,000 increase. Those numbers are disputed by some members of the Board considering that FDGD employs vendors from out of town and that Eldora skiers contribute a lot to Ned sales tax, especially in March, the same month as the festival.

The NDDA requested more information from the FDGD accountants and from the state of Colorado in order to better calculate how much revenue FDGD is responsible for. However, the data currently available helped the Board to see which town programs and events are successful and which aren’t.

FDGD Festival Organizer Sarah Martin presented a funding request for an additional $10,000 for traffic control and for a zero-waste initiative. Martin’s aim for the festival is to be safe, be clean, and have fun, with her major focus at this time being on the organization of traffic and on decreasing the carbon footprint of the event.

The NDDA unanimously agreed that special events should see more support from both themselves and from the town. Though the town Board of Trustees currently aren’t matching or providing funding, they are supporters of special events. Board Member Steve Karowe suggested contributions from the town need not be financial, but could be contributions of services, like from Public Works.

The Board discussed how the requested $10,000 should be split, deciding to allocate $7500 to traffic and $2500 to the zero-waste initiative. The Board moved to approve the funding request and was passed without opposition.

The NDDA meets the second Wednesday of every month. The next meeting will be on Wednesday, March 9, 2022, starting at 6 p.m. For more information please go to: https://townofnederland.colorado.gov/ government/boards-and-commissions/ downtown-development-authority